Originally posted by wahwee
How can anyone say that Tbay blitzed "smarter"? Because it worked? The reason why Tampa has a dominant defense is because they have the best front four in football, not because of smarter blitzes. Let's look at the dlines:
Rice vs Taylor. Taylor is better, but Rice can bring consistent pressure too (though he doesn't have to beat double/triple teams at all, like Taylor does every play).
Sapp and Mcfarland, as was pointed out, both can provide a passrush (and sapp gets double teamed alot). We send in Williams, D. Bowens, and/or Burnett to provide interior pass rush, and, while they do a good job, they are not DT's.
Spires vs Ogun. I'd consider these two equal, though Adewale should be making a step up this next year.
The difference between our d and Tampa's is that the linemen who get singled up wreak havoc, whereas Taylor is our only consistent threat. We just need Ogun to continue to develop and we'll be on our way.
PS The reason we couldn't get pressure on Favre on MNF was because they were playing max protection all game long to keep people off him. Our blitzes (which we did try in this game) were beaten by screens and quick passes. The reason we lost that game was because of stupid fumbles by Rob Konrad and Cris Carter early on, so we couldn't keep pace.